SUCCESS STORY – WASGAU BUTCHERY

WASGAU butchery integrates Qlik and CSB with iVIEW for CSB

“iVIEW for CSB is a well-thought-out, powerful tool for us to make the added value of our CSB data faster and more comprehensive.“

Pascal Rottinger, Division Manager/Authorized Signatory, WASGAU Metzgerei GmbH

The customer

EDEKA Südwest Fleisch, a wholly owned subsidiary of EDEKA Südwest, specializes in the production and sale of meat and sausage products. More than 1,000 employees ensure freshness and variety at the service counters of around 1,100 EDEKA branches every day – from Lake Constance to Saarland. The high-quality meat and sausage specialties are manufactured on a round 40,000 square meter production area at the company’s headquarters in Rheinstetten near Karlsruhe.

Solution at a glance

Initial Situation

Since 1967, the company-owned butcher shop of the Pirmasens-based food trading company Wasgau has been producing meat, sausage, and ham specialties. But it’s not just the butcher’s trade that has a tradition, but also data-driven corporate management: WASGAU has been using business intelligence technology from Qlik across the group since 2008 to generate and visualize control-relevant key figures and analyses from various IT systems.

Analysis of CSB data with Qlik

The heart of the IT landscape at WASGAU Metzgerei is the ERP solution CSB. The data transfer from the industry solution to Qlik was previously carried out by exporting .csv files. “The disadvantage of such .csv exports is, on the one hand, the time required,” says Pascal Rottinger, Division Manager/Authorized Signatory at WASGAU Metzgerei GmbH. “On the other hand, errors can occur if, for example, data in the ERP system is subsequently changed.”

Solution

Optimization of the ETL process

To make the ETL process more efficient and for more data consistency and‑To ensure security, the butcher shop decided to introduce iVIEW, a data automation framework developed by Informatec and integrated into Qlik, which enables the central management and distribution of business content across Qlik applications.

The availability of the iVIEW solution “iVIEW for CSB” also spoke in favor of the framework. This includes predefined solutions for the extraction, structuring and provision of data from the CSB sales and procurement modules as well as corresponding quick-start UI templates. This means that Qlik applications can be created even faster and easier.

Strengthening data consistency and security

The iVIEW Library, a central and cross-application library that is integrated into the iVIEW Data Automation Framework, is used to optimize Qlik applications and simplify data management. Master key figures and other important information are centrally defined and stored in the iVIEW Library. This improves the reliability and accuracy of reports and analyzes because all relevant data for the entire Qlik system landscape comes from a trusted source and is consistent.

WASGAU Metzgerei’s key figure requests in addition to the predefined key figures in iVIEW for CSB were easily implemented by Informatec thanks to the flexibility of iVIEW.

Fast implementation

The implementation took just a few days due to the automated coding process and the existing solution templates.

The data is loaded incrementally twice a day from the CSB data warehouse via a tested interface. A role concept regulates data access.

In Qlik, among other things, sales, sales, and wholesale margin are evaluated at different levels of detail and in different temporal dimensions such as current week, previous week, previous month, current year, and previous year. In addition, the development of the key figures over different periods is visualized in Qlik.

The applications are used by management, operations, and production management as well as by the purchasing and scheduling departments.

Further development for CSB production module

Due to the good experiences with the iVIEW for CSB modules for sales and procurement, WASGAU Metzgerei also wanted to optimize the Qlik analysis of CSB data from the production area in another project. Without further ado, Informatec and WASGAU Metzgerei decided to work together and develop a corresponding module that will complement the iVIEW solution portfolio in the future.

“The collaboration is going very well,” says Pascal Rottinger. “As a CSB partner and Qlik Elite Channel Partner, Informatec brings with it the appropriate understanding of technology and the direct line to the software manufacturers. I have been working with both solutions for several years and, as a trained master butcher, I know the processes and the resulting requirements very well, not only from a controlling perspective but also from a specialist department perspective.” In addition to the high level of technological expertise, Pascal Rottinger values ​​Informatec’s specific IT security know-how. “In the area of ​​security rules and authorization management, we benefit greatly from Informatec’s expertise, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data and minimizing the risk of unauthorized access or data leaks.”

The aim is to use the new iVIEW for CSB module to get a current overview of which department was how productive, how much scrap was generated in which department, and where there were deviations from the target values ​​of the individual items in the parts list such as weight, number or quantity of raw materials or consumables and other relevant details. “We want to gain valuable information from this information to further improve our production,” explains Pascal Rottinger. “On the one hand, this involves efficiency aspects such as optimizing the production quantity, the use of goods, reducing the production frequency, and the effective deployment of personnel. On the other hand, we attach particular importance to sustainability: We want to minimize food waste in our area of ​​responsibility and thus contribute to curbing food waste.”

Application areas and benefits

Transparency, efficiency and data quality

By using the iVIEW for CSB modules, the butcher shop benefits from efficient data provision and higher data quality in terms of integrity, timeliness, and consistency of the CSB data. “Due to the automated ETL process, we can now be sure that we are working with reliable and trustworthy data directly from CSB,” confirms Pascal Rottinger. “We can also flexibly determine the frequency of data updates – right up to real-time evaluations. In the production area, for example, we will update the data every hour.”

The central definition and storage of master key figures in iVIEW Library also optimizes the reliability and precision of reports and analyses. “It is ensured that the key figures such as sales, delivery quota, wholesale margin, and gross profit are always defined the same in all streams,” says Pascal Rottinger. “In addition, new reports and analyzes can be created more easily because there is no longer any effort required to define and maintain the key figures. The same applies to changes. They are done centrally in one place, which is much more efficient.”

The iVIEW Library was so well received by the company that WASGAU Metzgerei licensed it for its existing projects.

Also for the group-wide process, which has not yet been completed in all areas of the company Migrating from QlikView to Qlik Sense using iVIEW Library is an option to ensure data consistency and reduce workload.

The decision to use iVIEW as a standard solution also means independence for WASGAU Metzgerei, as it does not depend on the specific know-how of an individual. Because Informatec ensures regular updates and maintenance, the company benefits from new features and security patches without the need for internal effort. In addition, the framework is continuously adapted to new technologies and industry standards to ensure future security.

“Our goal is to work as efficiently and sustainably as possible. iViEW for CSB in conjunction with Qlik as BIFrontend gives us the necessary transparency about our value creation process in order to identify optimization potential quickly, accurately and reliably.”

Pascal Rottinger, Division Manager/Authorized Signatory, WASGAU Metzgerei GmbH

Summary